Under the gaze of Ulysses –
Species, words and other landscapes
a TRAVEL NOTEBOOK by Manuel Valente Alves
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Under the gaze of Ulysses –
Species, words and other landscapes
a TRAVEL NOTEBOOK by Manuel Valente Alves
HOME | SPECIES | WORDS | STARS IN MY POCKET | GRAINS OF SAND | ABOUT | CONTACT
Artist’s profile
Manuel Valente Alves (Abrantes, Portugal) lives and works in Lisbon. He is graduated in Medicine from the University of Lisbon. His artwork reflects critically on the changings of the contemporary landscape, in their relations to time, memory, body, nature and culture. He uses photography, video and drawing as main technical supports to create installations, books, films and webart projects.
Since 1983 he held nearly three dozen individual exhibitions and participated in more than four dozen collective exhibitions in several museums, galleries and other art institutions in Portugal and abroad: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon), Goethe Institute (Lisbon), Serralves Foundation (Porto), Culturgest (Lisbon) Chiado Museum (Lisbon) Portuguese Centre of Photography (Porto), Centro Cultural de Belém (Lisbon), National Museum of Ancient Art (Lisbon), CAV – Visual Arts Centre (Coimbra) , Casa da Cerca (Almada), Palais des Beaux Arts (Brussels), Frankfurter Kunsverein (Frankfurt), Circulo de Bellas Artes (Madrid), Canal Isabel II (Madrid), Marco – Museum of Contemporary Art (Campo Grande, Brazil), Diferença Gallery (Lisbon), Graça Fonseca Gallery (Lisbon), Luis Serpa Gallery (Lisbon), among others.
He integrated some oficial representations of Portuguese art abroad: "The Image of Words" (Europalia 91, Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels, 1991); "Lusitania" (Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, 1992); "Travel Book – Portugiesische Photographie 1854-1997" (Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, 1997); "Observatory – Portuguese Contemporary Photography" (Canal Isabel II, Madrid, 1998); "Portugal: Algunas Figuras" (Laboratorio Arte Alameda, Mexico City, Mexico, 2005).
He has published four books of artist: Lisbon Body - Toils and Days, with John Pinharanda and Nina Szielasko (MVA Invent, 2002), Andreas, with João Miguel Fernandes Jorge (National Museum of Ancient Art, National Institute of Museums, 2003), Cadmus and Harmony (Casa da Cerca, Contemporary Art Centre, 2007), Lysis (author's edition, 2015).
He has three films published on DVD: Just Reality (Portuguese Center of Photography, 2002), Lisbon Body (MVA Invent 2002) and Andreas (National Museum of Ancient Art, National Institute of Museums, 2003).
He is the author of two internet webart projects: "Under the gaze of Ulysses – Species, words and other landscapes" and "Mnemosyne – mirrors and reflections".
Last installations were: "Cadmus and Harmony", curated by Emília Ferreira (Casa da Cerca, Almada, 2007); "White Island", curated by Emília Ferreira (Teatro Municipal de Almada, 2007); "Asklepieion", part of the exhibition Hospital, curated by Luis Campos (Panopticon of the Miguel Bombarda Hospital, Lisbon, 2012); "After the Deluge", part of the exhibition Wagner's Dream, curated by Victor Pinto da Fonseca (Revolver Platform, Lisbon, 2012); "Walking on the Clouds", with Carla Cabanas, curated by Margarida Medeiros (Casa-Museu Medeiros e Almeida, Lisbon, 2016).
He is represented in several private and public collections, such as: Caixa Geral de Depósitos, Lisbon; Lisbon City Hall; CAM, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon; Center for Photography Studies, Coimbra; Collection of Lagos Contemporary Art ; Collection Casa da Cerca - Contemporary Art Centre, Almada; National Photography Collection, Porto; collection of St. Francis Xavier Hospital, Lisbon; Collection PLMJ Foundation, Lisbon; Instituto Camões, Lisbon, Museum of Contemporary Art of Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande, Brazil.
Manuel Valente Alves's interest in interdisciplinary practices has led him to develop alongside his art practice, research work in the areas of history, philosophy and museology. Aiming to promote a holistic approach to the knowledge, very early he has been linking art, science, medicine and humanities in general. In this context, he is the author, editor and co-editor of nearly two dozen books, he has organized several colloquia and conferences and he has curated, among others, some institutional exhibitions: "Seven contemporary artists evoke the medical generation of 1911" (Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, 1999), "Passages" (the National Art Museum, Lisbon, 2005), "Transparency" (National Museum Soares dos Reis, Porto, 2010), "Gabinet of Anatomy" (Arpad Szenes - Vieira da Silva Foundation, Lisbon, 2011), "Laboratory of Anatomy" (University of Dean of Lisbon, 2013), "Living Automaton" (National Museum of Natural History and Science, Lisbon, 2014).
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